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I give up on free software phones (2019)

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Re: I give up on free software phones (2019)

#171

Post by timthelion »

friend_and_foe wrote: post #130
timthelion wrote: post #17

I use lineage on oneplus phones and have no problems. I can't do internet banking and a bunch of other non-free things, but really, who needs that? I have a web browser. The only thing that doesn't work is google meet and google docs and google drive because they intentionally break the mobile experience in the web. But there is a simple solution. Simply don't use google services. If/when my employer demands that of…

I have a similar setup and have no problems with online banking. I hear this from people, what exactly is the problem?

It shows a dialog that my phone is not secure on startup and closes when I close the dialog.

Re: I give up on free software phones (2019)

#172

Post by xcv123 »

nirui wrote: post #158
AndyKelley wrote: post #75

I got my librem in the mail last week after waiting several years(!!) for shipping. It's complete trash. The software is shit, the battery is shit, it's expensive, low specs, completely unusable. I'm willing to compromise a lot in order to go with the free software approach, but my god, just do better. There's no excuse for how un-functional this thing is. Try harder. I had the same reaction with the pine phone a cou…

Ain't we are all responsible for "duping" Purism into making that phone? Just look at the hypes after the announcement and how people loved it on paper . It's a classic example on why you should never fully trust your consumers for their suggestions. Based on those hypes, Purism probably thought they can just create a phone for hackers first... and never realized the reality that even hackers loves consumer products.…

> Just take a look on how many hackers owns a MacBook as their main driver despite the existence of many good Linux laptops

Apple silicon is becoming one of the best options for Linux

https://asahilinux.org

Re: I give up on free software phones (2019)

#173

Post by saratogacx »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #161

This answers a question that's been bugging me: Why TF can I not find a Calendar app on the Play Store that does not depend on Google Calendar? I used to have one 5 years ago that was completely separate, but now I'm apparently not allowed to have a calendar app that does not send all my calendar info to Google. So now I have this very nice Android phone that does not have a Calendar app because Google won't allow su…

I know it is just trading one mega-corp for another but the Outlook app doesn't use Google calendar. I don't think the Samsung calendar uses google either unless you hook it up to gmail, I had mine against an exchange server.

Re: I give up on free software phones (2019)

#174

Post by harry8 »

AndyKelley wrote: post #167
crote wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It had a well-polished Linux-based OS, developed in-house by Nokia. Excellent hardware for the time, and a keyboard which was a delight to use. It got pretty decent reviews - even outside of the Linux fanboy bubble. It's just a good phone which happens to run Linux, not a mediocre phone hyped because it is one of the few Linux options available.

I mean, Android is mostly Linux. I don't think the kernel is the issue. The issue with librem is that they put very little effort into the basic user experience of the software.

The point is that the n900 was Gnu/Linux with glibc like mama said was good for you and worked along very similar lines to your desktop machine.

Maemo was gtk+ based and many Gnome applications ran really nicely. Eg Gnumeric was great. The desktop dev environment worked so you could port or write stuff from scratch then load it onto your phone. apt-get worked - apt was the app store iirc.

But who cares that stuff?

It was as slick and nice a user interface as the then recently released iphone! No really, I'm not making that up. Fold-out keyboard was terrific too. Way, way ahead of android at that time and arguably still. From memory the touchscreen on the iphone was better but nothing else was.

Microsoft bought nokia and killed it. Nothing has been as good since.

Re: I give up on free software phones (2019)

#175

Post by moqmar »

maratc wrote: post #58
jancsika wrote: post #33

Someone should do a Linux phone that scales way back: 1. you can dial phone numbers somehow 2. you can talk on the phone 3. you can hear the person on the other line 4. the cell reception on the phone is decent quality 5. antenna is properly placed for very good reception 6. basic SMS works, all the time 7. has been extensively tested to work with a single carrier, any other carrier is no warranty 8. boot time and sh…

The meaning of the word "phone" has shifted in the recent years, and your requirements are a good representation of what that word meant in circa 2007; recently however the requirements 1-8 have so little relevance that it's possible to operate a device without satisfying any of them [0]. The new meaning of the word is an expanded version of #9 whereas it's a connected gadget that runs apps from the well-stocked buil…

I think that's exactly the point: someone sells something as a phone, but doesn't even have the most basic features every phone since way before 2007 has. Sure, for an actually marketable product, you also need wifi & bluetooth, a good camera, a nice design, a UI/UX people actually want to use, apps for at least a couple common things and probably quite a bit more, but you also have to get the baseline of being a phone right, which at least most of the points are about. You simply can't skip those if you want to sell a "phone".

Re: I give up on free software phones (2019)

#176

Post by dima55 »

harry8 wrote: post #174
AndyKelley wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, Android is mostly Linux. I don't think the kernel is the issue. The issue with librem is that they put very little effort into the basic user experience of the software.

The point is that the n900 was Gnu/Linux with glibc like mama said was good for you and worked along very similar lines to your desktop machine. Maemo was gtk+ based and many Gnome applications ran really nicely. Eg Gnumeric was great. The desktop dev environment worked so you could port or write stuff from scratch then load it onto your phone. apt-get worked - apt was the app store iirc. But who cares that stuff? It…

The N900 was everything a portable device should be. Really sad that it was a dead end

Re: I give up on free software phones (2019)

#177

Post by u801e »

harry8 wrote: post #141
AndyKelley wrote: post #75

I got my librem in the mail last week after waiting several years(!!) for shipping. It's complete trash. The software is shit, the battery is shit, it's expensive, low specs, completely unusable. I'm willing to compromise a lot in order to go with the free software approach, but my god, just do better. There's no excuse for how un-functional this thing is. Try harder. I had the same reaction with the pine phone a cou…

Reminder whenever this comes up that the Nokia N900 was a beautiful, functional thing running linux and Free software 10 years ago. No really. Best phone I've ever owned. Better than apple or android. It's loss was immense.

I never had the N900, but I used the N9 as my primary phone until the SIM holder broke and I had to hold the SIM in to make a call.

Looking at the comparison[1], it looks like the N9 was a bit more advanced, but it lacked the keyboard the N900 had. At least I also had a N97 :)

[1] https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=3398&idPhone2...

Re: I give up on free software phones (2019)

#178

Post by nvy »

xethos wrote: post #118
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also received my librem 5 recently, and it's incredibly disappointing. The software in particular is incredibly buggy and janky. When I open the app store it just fails to load things sometimes. Even the FirefoxOS device I tried a few years ago was better.

> When I open the app store it just fails to load things sometimes. Considering how many desktop linux distros fall down with this, you may be expecting too much of your beta-level phones. It's been years, yes, but power management isn't exactly easy. Just look at how bad Linux laptops were even just a few years ago - hell, look at how long it took the multinational mega-corporation to get Android's background power…

>hell, look at how long it took the multinational mega-corporation to get Android's background power consumption down.

Was it bad early on? I seem to recall even the original Nexus One would last all day on one charge.

By contrast the Librem barely lasts 4 hours, rendering it completely useless as a phone.

Re: I give up on free software phones (2019)

#179

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

jancsika wrote: post #33

Someone should do a Linux phone that scales way back: 1. you can dial phone numbers somehow 2. you can talk on the phone 3. you can hear the person on the other line 4. the cell reception on the phone is decent quality 5. antenna is properly placed for very good reception 6. basic SMS works, all the time 7. has been extensively tested to work with a single carrier, any other carrier is no warranty 8. boot time and sh…

This is pretty close: https://www.wiphone.io/

I have one, played snake on it, liked it (hurray for real buttons). Haven't bothered set it up as my daily driver because 90% of my phone usage is Signal and so far as I know that's not yet working.

If somebody has the bandwidth to hack on it in a way that will move the project forward, I'll send them mine for free. I love the idea but it's just not my kind of tinkering.

Re: I give up on free software phones (2019)

#180

Post by interlinked »

AndyKelley wrote: post #75

I got my librem in the mail last week after waiting several years(!!) for shipping. It's complete trash. The software is shit, the battery is shit, it's expensive, low specs, completely unusable. I'm willing to compromise a lot in order to go with the free software approach, but my god, just do better. There's no excuse for how un-functional this thing is. Try harder. I had the same reaction with the pine phone a cou…

Valve should try their hands at it. Steam deck already makes up ~40% of linux desktop installations. By the end of this year, it should be more than half of all linux installations.
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